The United States, the Soviet Union and the Geopolitical Implications of the Origins of the Cold War
206 pages
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206 pages
English

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Description

A study of how the United States and the Soviet Union deployed their hard and soft power resources to create the basis for the institutionalization of the international order in the aftermath of World War Two.


‘The United States, the Soviet Union and the Geopolitical Implications of the Origins of the Cold War, 1945–1949’ postulates that the geopolitical interests and needs of the superpowers led to the configuration of the post-war international order. Taking a long-term approach to the evolution of the system of states, it describes how the United States and the Soviet Union deployed their hard and soft power resources to create the basis for the institutionalization of the international order in the aftermath of World War Two. The main idea advanced by this book is that the origins of the Cold War should not be seen from the perspective of a magnified spectrum of conflict but should be regarded as a process by which the superpowers attempted to forge a normative framework capable of sustaining their geopolitical needs and interests in the post-war scenario. This book examines how the use of ideology and the instrument of political intervention in the spheres of influence managed by the superpowers was conducive to the establishment of a stable international order.


‘The United States, the Soviet Union and the Geopolitical Implications of the Origins of the Cold War, 1945–1949’ postulates that the element of conflict present in the early period of the Cold War served to demarcate the scope of manoeuvring available to each of the superpowers. This state of affairs denotes the existence of diverging geopolitical interests, acknowledged through the presence of well-demarcated spheres of influence. The book examines the notion that the United States and the Soviet Union were primarily interested in establishing the conditions for accomplishing their vital geostrategic interests, which required the implementation of social norms imposed in the respective spheres of influence, a factor that provided certainty to the spectrum of interstate relations after the period of turmoil that culminated in the outbreak of World War Two. Drawing on the example of the friction that affected Soviet-American relations at the end of World War Two, this book examines the circumstances that give rise to the construction of sound international orders and the functional values that sustain their existence.


‘The United States, the Soviet Union and the Geopolitical Implications of the Origins of the Cold War, 1945–1949’ starts by examining the manner in which great power management has served as an instrument of the process of re-institutionalization, with special emphasis on the geopolitical elements that underpinned the intervention of the superpowers in their spheres of influence and how this state of affairs impacted on the stability of the system of states that emerged after World War Two ended. The book also examines the implications of the process of de-institutionalization that took place in the system of states since the emergence of a unified Germany and how it led to the disruption of interstate relations in the European political order. The settlement of the German Question provided the wartime allies with an opportunity to deal with the problems that stemmed from the process of de-institutionalization of the international order that the United States facilitated through the enforcement of its vital geopolitical interests in Western Europe. Emphasizing the central role of ideology in the deployment of American geopolitical power in the aftermath of World War Two the book examines the way in which the Soviet Union contributed to institutionalizing the international order by establishing the parameters of intervention that would regulate interstate relations. There will also be an emphasis on the role of ideology in the formulation of the Soviet foreign policy in the post-war era. The book also examines the special geopolitical culture of Russia and the concept of Eurasianism as the reasons behind the establishment of the spheres of influence system that operated during the Cold War. This book discusses how the process of institutionalization that took place following World War Two can teach us about the configuration of the geopolitical mechanisms needed for reconfiguring international and regional orders after a period of military conflict.


1. The Re-institutionalization of the International Order in the Aftermath of World War Two; 2. The German Question and the De-institutionalization of the International Order (1871–1945); 3. The Patterns of the Institutionalization of the Cold War International Order; 4. American Geopolitical Interests in Western Europe; 5. The Role of Ideology in the Scheme of Intervention Exercised by the United States in Western Europe; 6. Soviet Security Needs and the Institutionalization of the Post-War International Order; 7. The Influence of Communist Ideology in the Institutionalization of the Post-War International Order; 8. Conclusion: The Geopolitical Approach to the Understanding of the Origins of the Cold War; Index.

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Publié par
Date de parution 30 octobre 2018
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9781783088010
Langue English

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The United States, the Soviet Union and the Geopolitical Implications of the Origins of the Cold War
The United States, the Soviet Union and the Geopolitical Implications of the Origins of the Cold War
Nicolas Lewkowicz
Anthem Press
An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company
www.anthempress.com
This edition first published in UK and USA 2018
by ANTHEM PRESS
75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK
or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK
and
244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA
© Nicolas Lewkowicz 2018
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of both the copyright
owner and the above publisher of this book.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-78308-799-0 (Hbk)
ISBN-10: 1-78308-799-4 (Hbk)
This title is also available as an e-book.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Chapter One Introduction
Chapter Two The Institutionalization of the Postwar International Order
Chapter Three The German Question and the Deinstitutionalization of the International Political System (1871–1945)
Chapter Four The Patterns of the Institutionalization of the Cold War International Order
Chapter Five American Geopolitical Interests in Western Europe
Chapter Six The Role of Ideology in the Scheme of Intervention Exercised by the United States in Western Europe
Chapter Seven Soviet Security Needs and the Institutionalization of the Postwar International Order
Chapter Eight Communist Ideology and the Formulation of Soviet Foreign Policy in the Postwar Era
Chapter Nine Conclusion: The Geopolitical Implications of the Origins of the Cold War
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank Dr. Keith McLay (University of Chester, UK), Dr. Anne Cormack (University of Greenwich, UK), and Professor Charlie Steen (University of New Mexico, USA), for giving me the opportunity to teach courses in European and American history. I would also like to thank the staff at the libraries of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Universitat de València, the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, the National Archives in Kew Gardens, London, the National Library of France in Paris and the British Library in London for their invaluable help.
I thank my parents, my sister Andrea and my dear wife Annie for their constant support and encouragement.
This book was written in several locations: Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico; Fort Benton, Montana; London; Valencia; Barcelona; Florence; Budapest; Prague. Those places provided inspiration for the writing of this book. As did Freyja and Nelson, nostres bonics gats .
I dedicate this book to my nephews, Joseph and Noah.
Chapter One
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Confluence of the Metapolitical, Institutionalist and Geopolitical perspectives in the understanding of the origins of the Cold War
The link between metapolitics, institutionalization and geopolitical concerns constitutes a useful platform from which to analyze the manner in which the post–World War II international order was configured. This work examines the origins of the Cold War from the perspective of classical geopolitical thinking. The scheme of foreign policy deployed by the United States and the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II was geared toward establishing the basis for the division of Europe into spheres of influence that would allow each superpower to retain a level of control over the areas of the world with the highest degree of geoeconomic and geopolitical relevance. The geopolitical interests of the United States and the Soviet Union were underpinned by concerns that were more or less permanent in nature. The United States occupies a semi-peripheral position in the system of states, as it is located on an outlying island of the world. The United States is situated between two countries (Mexico and Canada) that do not pose a threat to US geopolitical interests. The conflict that emerged between the two superpowers in the aftermath of World War II has to be appreciated from the perspective of the willingness of the United States to retain a central position in the affairs of the “world island,” composed of the European, Asian and African continents. The American political leadership reversed the US isolationist stance in regard to the affairs of the European continent for the purposes of preventing the possible onset of another economic depression and the establishment of geopolitical poles that would menace the position of the United States in the international order. There is an important primordialist element attached to the way in which the United States reacted to the political expediencies that informed the end of World War II. The entry of the United States into the war was justified by making reference to the need to emancipate the world from oppressive ideologies. There was an appeal on the part of the US political leadership to the exceptionalist nature of the United States. Overtones of American exceptionalism had been employed in the past in order to expand into the West and into the Caribbean Basin. The use of exceptionalist overtones is indicative of the metapolitical approach employed to achieve the possible institutionalization of the post–World War II international order according to the geopolitical needs and interests of the United States.
The scheme of foreign policy deployed by the Soviet Union responded to long-term geopolitical concerns. The Soviet Union was the successor state of the Russian Empire. The ideological orientation that informed the Soviet leadership was centered on the need to ensure that the country would be able to deal with its geographical encirclement and its own sense of destiny as a great geopolitical power on the Eurasian continent. The security of the Soviet Union depended on the possibility of expanding its geographical sway farther into the central part of the European continent and on entrenching its hegemonic position in the Eurasian hinterland. The superpowers also had important geopolitical interests in the Asian continent, particularly in East Asia and the Middle East. However, the concerns that arose in the European continent dictated the overall scheme of institutionalization that operated in the international order at large. This is because countries like China, Japan and Korea were not in a position to exert independent foreign policies that would pose a challenge to the hegemonic position of the superpowers after the end of World War II.
This book describes the geopolitical implications of the institutionalization of the system of states instigated by the hegemonic practices put in place by the superpowers after the end of the war. The main argument of this book is that the United States and the Soviet Union were compelled to establish the foundations for the institutionalization of the international order in order to achieve their geopolitical interests in the postwar era. These tasks were facilitated by making reference to the metapolitical principles inherent in the concepts of American exceptionalism and Eurasianism. The Cold War was, first and foremost, a geopolitical “standoff” between the United States and the Soviet Union that had its epicenter in Europe. 1 The European political order had been profoundly affected by the rise of a unified German state and, later on, by the revisionist drive launched by Nazi Germany. These two historical processes were crucial in producing the deinstitutionalization of the international order. This is why, after World War II, the negotiations over the “German Question” had such a prominent role in the reconstitution of the international order. The quality of interstate relations during the interwar years deteriorated due to the lack of a sound body of legal and social norms capable of being enforced by the great powers of the day. The most prominent members of the system of states were not willing to undertake the level of responsibility that was necessary for the purposes of maintaining stable interstate relations. The present work analyzes how the use of ideology and the instrument of political intervention in the American and Soviet spheres of influence led to the establishment of a stable postwar international order. The element of conflict present in the early period of the Cold War served to demarcate the geopolitical scope of action of the superpowers. However, the level of conflict that was present in the nascent system of states was moderated by the configuration of social norms that enabled the superpowers to actualize their geopolitical interests. The attainment of vital geostrategic aims required the implementation of social norms of behavior that could be adhered to by the units of the system of states. This book argues that the establishment of the spheres of influence system constituted the most valuable instrument for the institutionalization of the postwar international order, as they provided certainty to the spectrum of interstate relations that emerged after the end of World War II.
The geopolitical perspective, oftentimes neglected by the scholarship on the origins of the Cold War, is very important for understanding the implications of the process of institutionalization that took place in the a

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